Wielding the Thunders Across Two Worlds

Kabia, the Grand Commander’s Mansion.

Nabi Konate was chatting with an old, blonde-haired, blue-eyed man.

"Thirty million euros has been deposited into your Gaul Bank account." Rabio raised a cigar to his lips, took a puff, and elegantly blew out a smoke ring. "Once the job is done, you’ll get the other seventy million."

Konate wasn’t smoking. Instead, he sat behind a large Commander’s desk, leaning back in a comfortable chair. "All financial operations for the newly established Kabia Mining Group will be managed by Gaul Bank. You’re making a killing."

"It’s a win-win!" Rabio said with a smile.

Konate smiled too. "That’s right, a win-win!"

The winners were him, Konate, and Gaul. The losers, naturally, were Kabia and Celestial Xia.

Rabio blew another smoke ring. After a moment’s thought, he decided to offer a word of caution. "Actually, all you need to do is reclaim the ownership rights to the mines. There’s no need to detain the workers from Celestial Xia."

"That would be too slow," Konate snorted. "The Celestial Xia People will protest, they’ll negotiate, they’ll demand talks. If this drags on, it will only get more troublesome."

"It’s better to just detain their workers directly. That will force them to compromise as quickly as possible." Konate smirked. "How would they dare refuse my demands when it means risking the lives of several hundred of their workers?"

Rabio couldn’t tell if Konate was confident or just arrogant. He asked in surprise, "If they delay, are you really prepared to let several hundred workers die trapped in the factory complex?"

Konate chuckled. "Not too many will die. Once a few of them do, they won’t be able to take it anymore."

Rabio said no more.

Since Konate was so bold, there was no point in trying to persuade him further.

’After all, Konate is the one on the front lines, and he’ll be the one targeted by Celestial Xia. All we need is to profit from the reclaimed mines. If the worst comes to pass and Konate is gone, we can just negotiate with Celestial Xia through a new proxy.’

Just then, a series of explosions suddenly erupted from the direction of the military barracks east of the capital.

Konate and Rabio both jumped in alarm and shot upright in their seats. Konate grabbed the phone and dialed the eastern barracks. "Is someone else attacking?"

His expression then became one of shock mixed with utter confusion. "Huh? A Superman? He can fly?"

"He destroyed all three armored vehicles in the camp and blew up all the machine guns and rocket launchers?"

"He disarmed all the soldiers and then set the camp on fire?"

"What the hell are you guys talk—"

Cursing into the phone, Konate walked out of his office and onto the third-floor balcony of the Commander’s Mansion. He looked toward the eastern barracks and saw, amidst the billowing black smoke, a dark figure hovering in the sky.

Rabio, beside him, held out his hand. A bodyguard immediately handed him a pair of binoculars. As Rabio raised them to his eyes, he saw the true identity of the dark figure.

"A Daoist!?"

The Berkeley incident couldn’t be hidden from the highest levels of various nations. As Gaul Country’s senior representative in Kabia and a member of the upper nobility himself, Rabio knew a few things.

Although he wasn’t involved in the specifics, he had gathered some information through various channels. He knew that Celestial Xia had a group of terrifying Extraordinary Beings of unknown number, and that these Extraordinary Beings were their country’s Daoists.

Rabio had seen photos of the Daoists, so he recognized Taoist Yan Song’s attire at a glance.

"Move!"

Hearing the explosions from the barracks, seeing the billowing black smoke and the figure hovering in mid-air, Rabio acted instantly. He handed the binoculars to the bodyguard beside him, then turned to leave.

But just as he turned, a shadow fell over him. Bathed in sunlight, the ground before him now held a shadow that was completely disconnected from any others.

Rabio froze, his entire body stiff. He slowly raised his head and saw a pair of cloth shoes, the corner of a garment, a blue robe...

He felt his heart stop for a moment. Taoist Yan Song, who had just been hovering over the barracks several kilometers to the east, had appeared above the Commander’s Mansion in the blink of an eye!

"Huh? Where’d he go? How did he suddenly disappear?"

While Rabio stood frozen, Konate, behind him, couldn’t help but mutter. He was still peering through binoculars, searching carefully, while also talking to the commander at the barracks.

"All the weapons were destroyed, and then the man just vanished?"

"What the hell do I pay you for!?"

"Shoot him with your guns! Blast him with your rocket launchers! Use..."

BANG BANG BANG—

The sound of gunfire behind him made Konate jump. He whipped his head around and saw the guards on the balcony next to him firing their weapons without hesitation, their target the sky above the Grand Commander.

Konate followed their line of fire and saw the same scene the factory workers had witnessed.

An elderly Eastern man in a blue cloth Daoist Robe hovered in mid-air, looking down at him coldly. At the same time, countless bullets hung suspended and motionless around him.

SWOOSH—

There was only a single sharp whistle, but it was followed by an unending stream of screams.

Taoist Yan Song dealt with them the same way he had at the factory complex. The bullets reversed course, and every soldier who had fired at him had a piece of their ear sliced off.

The gunfire at the Commander’s Mansion stopped instantly.

Everyone stared at Taoist Yan Song in terror, as if looking at a demon from Hell. The brave ones trembled all over, the cowardly ones wet themselves in fear, and a few even dropped their guns and fell directly to their knees.

Taoist Yan Song glanced at Rabio, whose skin color made him stand out the most.

"We only wanted money! Everything was within the rules of engagement between nations!" Rabio blurted out in fluent Celestial Xia, raising his hands high. "Detaining the factory workers, the idea of killing a few of them—that was all Konate’s idea."

"I tried to persuade him not to touch the workers from Celestial Xia, but we’re just partners! I couldn’t influence Konate’s specific actions!" Rabio explained hurriedly.

Konate couldn’t understand what Rabio was saying, but he could at least tell that Rabio was speaking the language of Celestial Xia, apparently trying to communicate with the old man. Which meant...

’This terrifying old man... is one of the Celestial Xia People?’

Konate’s pupils contracted. He immediately said, "All previous agreements signed between Kabia and Celestial Xia will remain in full effect! I welcome more businesses from Celestial Xia to come and contribute to Kabia’s development!"

However, Taoist Yan Song didn’t understand what Konate was saying. And besides, there was no need for him to listen.

As a Daoist with a thousand years of Dao Practice, he could tell with a single glance whether an ordinary person was telling the truth, and whether their nature was violent and wicked.

So, the moment Konate finished speaking, he felt a sudden searing heat in his chest. He couldn’t help but look down and see his chest glowing faintly red, as if a flame was burning his heart.

The next moment, everyone watched as a wisp of flame suddenly ignited over Konate’s heart. It then spread from the inside out, quickly engulfing his entire body.

There were no screams, no struggles. Bound by Taoist Yan Song’s True Qi, Konate couldn’t do a thing. He just stood there, stock-still, as the Taiyi Divine Fire burned him into a human torch.

When the flames died out, Konate himself had vanished.

There was no charred corpse, no ashes. Just a wisp of smoke that drifted away on the wind after the fire was extinguished.

When Taoist Yan Song turned his gaze to Rabio, Rabio dropped to his knees with a THUD, his hands still raised high. "I have truly never harmed any Celestial Xia People! Both Celestial Xia and Gaul have old revolutionary ties! Long live the friendship between our two nations!"